title: Polarization switching and polarization mode hopping in quantum dot vertical-cavity surface-emitting lasers.
abstract: We show experimentally that polarization mode hopping in quantum dot vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) takes place between nonorthogonal elliptically polarized modes. In contrast to quantum well VCSELs the average dwell time decreases with injection current. This decrease is by 8 orders of magnitude: from seconds to nanoseconds and is achieved without any modifications of the VCSEL internal anisotropies. The observed scaling happens in a range of currents as wide as 8 times the threshold value.
authors.affiliation: Department of Applied Physics and Photonics, Brussels Photonics Team B-PHOT, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, 2 Pleinlaan, B-1050 Brussels, Belgium. lolejnic@b-phot.org
authors.forename: Lukasz
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Olejniczak
authors.forename: Krassimir
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Panajotov
authors.forename: Hugo
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Thienpont
authors.forename: Marc
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Sciamanna
authors.forename: Alex
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mutig
authors.forename: Friedhelm
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Hopfer
authors.forename: Dieter
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Bimberg
mesh_terms: D004867:Equipment Design; D019544:Equipment Failure Analysis; D007834:Lasers; D045663:Quantum Dots; D012031:Refractometry / Q000295:instrumentation*